IVF News

IVF Podcast: Professor Denny Sakkas - Embryo Metabolomics Professor Denny Sakkas, of Yale University, discusses embryo metabolomics. [ Visit Website ] IVF Podcasts - 0 Comments.

Announcement: Implementation of quality control in the ART laboratory Online survey for IVF lab personel. [ Visit Website ] University of Nottingham - 0 Comments.

Announcement: Survey: Implementation of quality management in the clinical practice of A.R.T. Online survey for IVF quality managers of clinics and clinicians. [ Visit Website ] University of Nottingham - 0 Comments.

News: IVF successes break new reproductive ground Despite IVF being used for thirty years, fertility treatments are still breaking new ground to assist couples struggling to conceive children - in multiples. MacKenna Roberts - 0 Comments.

News: IVF birth problems due to infertility not technology The increased risk of complications during pregnancy and at birth observed in babies conceived through assisted reproductive technology (ART) may be the result of parent's underlying infertility problems rather than the technology itself, a new study has revealed. Rebecca Robey - 0 Comments.

Announcement: HANDS-ON TRAINING ON INTRACYTOPLASMIC SPERM INJECTION & MOLECULAR GENETICS COMPLETE HANDS-ON TRAINING As a part of the proposed certificate course in Assisted Reproductive Technology to be started in 2009 by Institute of Reproductive Health & Toxicology and EPPENDORF INDIA LIMITED, (India Subsidiary of Eppendorf AG, Germany), in association with University of Calcutta, a workshop is being organized at University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India. PROF. ASOK K. BHATTACHARYYA - 0 Comments.

IVF Jobs

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#	Position	Closing Date	Hits
1	Head of Embryology BMI The Winterbourne Hospital Dorchester, United Kingdom	1st September 2008	158
2	Clinical Embryologist Hewitt Centre for Reproductive Medicine Liverpool, United Kingdom	Friday 22nd August	350
3	Embryologist Gennima Athens, Greece	open until filled	599
4	Clinical Embryologist Assisted Conception Unit Clane, Ireland	10th August 2008	443
5	Clinical Embryologist – Fertility Unit Fertility Unit - Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust London, United Kingdom	25 July 2008.	461
6	Embryologist: Vancouver, Canada Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine Burnaby, Canada	When filled	924
7	Consultant Gynaecologist with Fertility Training The Kilkenny Clinic Kilkenny, Ireland		609
8	Embryologist The Kilkenny Clinic Kilkenny, Ireland		1238
9	Consultant Gynaecologist with Specialist Infertility Training The Kilkenny Clinic Kilkenny, Ireland		1085
10	Trainee Andrologist Cork Fertility Centre College Road, Ireland		4636

Resumes

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#	Title	Country	Photo	Hits
1	Stuart Simpson Trainee Embryologist/Andrologist	United Kingdom	-	3
	"To begin a career in the fascinating field of human reproductive biology. My studies at University have made me want to pursue a career in this field and the idea of doing so is very exciting. I want to pursue a job in the fertility field because it interests me greatly and it will be helping to change people's lives for the better."
2	Dr Naroda Maheshwari Embroyologist/IVF Consultant	India	-	93
	"To work in team of IVF consultant to solve the problems of Infertility in working women."
3	Dr.Arivanban Thiruvalluvan Embryologist / Andrologist / Research Assistant	Australia / India		197
4	Sarah Armstrong Trainee Embryologist	United Kingdom		223
	"A dedicated student wishing to form a career in embryology combining a love of science with working with and helping patients."
5	DR. PRATIXA JOSHI SENIOR EMBRYOLOGIST	India	-	131
	"Senior Embryologist with 5 years of Experience in IVF,Endrology ,Cryobiology ,Ovarian Tissue culture and vitrificaiton,Human Skin fibroblast culture,Human Embryonic Stem cell."
6	Dr. Afsaneh Motamed-Khorasani IVF Lab Director or Senior Embryologist/Research Scientist	Canada	-	304
	"English, Persian"
7	amrit swain embryologist	India	-	206
	"to extend career as an embryologist to serve humanity."
8	agarau olayemi laboratory manager	Nigeria		180
	"To strive for excellence and precision at all times, in all position and circumstances in attaining professional distinction."
9	zeyad abu zaitoun embryology	uae		252
	"getting a job that allow me to show the equalificationi got from my academic education"
10	Krishna Mantravadi Embryologist/ Andrologist	Australia	-	265
	"I am seeking acceptance into Embryology practice with goal of providing infertility service utilising my extensive primary care background. I am a natural leader with a sense of responsibility and accountability, competent and team spirited person recognised for excelling in high stress environment."

More resumes

IVFMail

<< Add your questions here >>

#	Title	Date Added	Hits	Replies
1	Oocyte quality	12 August 2008	18	1
	The abnormality of this oocytes , what is the reason for it in your opinion. Hassan [ Reply here ]
2	Embryologist	05 August 2008	81	1
	May i ask what sould be the optimum theatre temperature during embryo transfer and oocyte retrievals? thanks EL [ Reply here ]
3	Embryo transfer	04 August 2008	91	2
	In advance I would like to say thanks for all of you who are going to give your best and try to solve this problem.Here it is... We have been using The Frydman ultra soft catheter for E.T.,but recently we started having the problems with embryos being left behind in catheter?What is the best way to load up the catheter? bb [ Reply here ]

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Replies

Re: Embryo transfer
There are a lot a small details that can influence the incidence of retained embryos. If you don't want to try a series of transfers with a different catheter type, you will have to look critically at all aspects of the transfer, and I'm sure that I'll miss a few in this discussion. I don't mean to sound pendantic, but in the past, I've experienced the same thing with different style catheters (in the end, one episode had nothing at all to do with the catheter, yet in a second episode, it all had to do with the catheter - a manufacturing change that changed the shape of the inner lumen at the tip). Not all of the following will apply, but I've tried to ask the basic questions.

Look at the catheter under a dissection microscope - have there been been manufacturing changes with the lumen of the catheter or the shape, or other aspects of the tip of the catheter? Does one person always load the catheter? Does one doctor always introduce the catheter at transfer? Does an embryologist push the syringe plunger for the doctor, or does the doctor push the syrine plunger? What is the speed of the syringe plunger push and is it consistent (remember laminar flow principles in the tip of the catheter)? Is the syringe disposable with a rubber tip or is it all plastic with an all plastic tip, or is it glass with a teflon tip plunger, or other? Is the catheter loaded directly from drops under oil, or from a dish of medium? What is the actual volume loaded in the catheter? Is the loaded volume always the same, e.g. do you load by feel or by eye or do you measure volume (it is easy to become complacent when you've done this over and over and over..)? Are the embryos at cleavage stage or blastocyst stage (subtle, but can change how the embryos move)? Is the volume in the catheter continuous or do you use air bubbles? If you use air bubbles, is it one, two, or three? If you don't use air bubbles, is the catheter held horizontally the entire time after loading? Does the doctor use transvaginal ultrasound for the transfer? Do you score the tranfer as to difficulty, or for cervical mucus, or for blood? Are retained embryos higher for egg donor recipients, frozen embryo replacements, or patient cycles (this can be related to circulating estrogens/cervical mucus)? What medium do you use for loading the embyros, in terms of protein or other supplementation? Is the catheter loaded with a sufficient volume to actually push the embryos out, e.g. do you fill the catheter with a small volume of medium prior to loading the air bubbles if used, or the embryos?

I've found most often, that for this clinic and for others, that retained embryos due to actual catheter loading technique occur with changes of loading volume, when the individual loading the catheter is trying to skimp on medium, including the pre-load volume, or the individual is under the belief that the smaller the volume the better. A good way to find out how much medium you use (and to QA different individuals) is to mock load a catheter, express the volume onto a dish, then measure the volume with an adjustable pipetter.

The next most common factor has been related to the catheter itself, regarding manufacturing changes that are very subtle. The inner lumen diameter should be consistent across the volume loaded. If there are restrictions then the laminar flow aspect will change, which can dramatically change the movement of the embryos. I've found this problem to be lot related, and I've rejected entire shipmenst of catheters based on this.

The other more obvious problem has been speed of the plunger push can become inconsistent, for example the individual believes that much faster is better, or really really slow is better, these are also common changes. Laminar flow. Whomever is doing the syringe push should watch the action of embryos (preferrably discard embryos) under the dissection microscope to see how speed changes the movement.

It is hard to control the physiological aspects, e.g. cervical mucus, but I see two very different practice aspects in this clinic, where one doctor does a brief rinse of the cervix, the other does an extensive rinse of the cervix and cervical canal, and there are no differences in embryo retention.

I hope this helps.

Mike
Michael L. Reed Center for Reproductive Medicine of New Mexico

Re: Embryo transfer
I have gone through what what Mike has said. I hink he is absolutely right. Embryo retension is only about 1% in our centre. Please follow every step meticulously. Good luck I am a clinician!
Dee Kini Miracle Assisted Reproduction & Research Centre

Re: No fertilzation after egg retrieval (reasons/suggestions)
You have to check woman\'s age, base line hormmones, egg scoring, LH and P4 on day of hCG, sperm motility, acrosome reaction, sperm binding at 6-8 hours, sperm morphology etc. I would certainly try ICSI next time if other factors are favourable.
Dee Kini Miracle Assisted Reproduction & Research Centre

Re: Seeding position in straw
Depending on how you\'re loading the cryostraws, you normally seed away from the embryo.

If say (going from top to bottom) you have freeze media/air gap/freeze media with embryo/air gap/freeze media; you'd seed the top freeze media section.
Simon Aiken

Re: Sperm Immobilisation
There are 2 parts for your questions;
1. If you ask wheter am immobolization agent is needed to immobilize the sperm, the answer is no. There is definitly an option to immobilize the sperm, directly in the medium and inject it. Please use as reference the works of Feichtinger/Stromer/Barak/Obruca from the 90th or around. When the sperm is immobilized than its OK

2. A motile sperm which is injected into an oocyte definitly destroys its \"inner structure, and the occ becomes degenerated. (personal experience)
Yona Barak ISRAEL

Re: Sperm Immobilisation
Thank you, but sometimes I am not sure did I immobilaze a sperm correctly, or did I killed him?
Bojana

Re: Oocyte Quality
Oocyte quality can also be assessed by using a PolScope (a quantitative polarized light microscope, commercially available as the Oosight) to visualize and measure the retardance of the meoitic spindle and tri-laminar zona pellucida.

The lack of a birefringent spindle (ie, exhibiting zero retardance) has routinely shown degraded viability in oocytes at the time of ICSI. Likewise, those with a low mean retardance spindle and/or inner zona have also been shown to be less viable. Viability can also be determined by the mere presence of an MI versus MII spindle in polar body-positive oocytes. An oocyte in the latter stages of MI exhibits an extruded polar body, but for obvious reasons, should not undergo ICSI until it has progressed to the full MII state. The spindle position within the oocyte can be used to quickly determine MI from MII.

I'd be happy to share references and example images of these various conditions if you're interested.
Cathy

Re: Oocyte quality
Cause of abnormal oocytes are primarily woman\'s age, stimulation protocol, poor responders, poor timing, poor culture conditions. Please check these meticulously
Dee Kini Miracle Assisted Reproduction & Research Centre

Re: Address of Kitazato, Japan
The address is
www.kitazato-biopharma.com
trading@kitazto-biopharma.com
Gabriel Dalvit